Alpha Protocol - MCA Blog on the Narrative Process

by Dhruin, 2009-12-01 21:13:12

A lengthy blog slash ramble has been posted by Chris Avellone, discussing their decisions and the process of iterating the story in Alpha Protocol and giving thanks to those involved. The piece describes Sega's commitment that allowed them to go back and make large changes to improve the number of choices available to players throughout the game. A sample:

For the narrative part of the process, Travis, Matt, and I did take on the existing characters and levels, wrote a new story using a portion of the already-made locations and relationship chains (where it made sense), and then rewrote the script and in-game emails to account for the story changes. We also added a lot more "what if the player did this" moments, took some of the plot elements and characters that were formerly untouchable and exposed them to kryptonite, and also accounted for the new reactivity mechanics and giving the player more choice and interactions in the missions. We also changed a lot of the motivations and focus of the storyline as well, as well as allowing the protagonist to have more choices with his background in character creation, which was a plus (Mike formerly had one role in the Agency, and one outlook on the greater good, so we decided to let the player choose their beginning and ending over the course of the game instead).

There was also recasting some of the voice actors. Some of the news bits were untouched, other large chunks Travis rewrote for the title. Some elements (locales, models, conversations) we left, others changed drastically - and we built a brand-new plot on top of existing assets. Levels that had been built often remained as they were, but their purpose in the grand scheme of things would change (and often, the player was no longer required to go through them to get to their objective, they could pick and choose).